I have what is a very elementary problem I realize, I am trying to return a string value from a selected value of a DropDownList upon selected index change but for some or other reason it is not happening.

You can try something like this if you are using ASP .net
var ddValue=
document.getElementById("your Drop Down List Item").options[document.getElementById("your Drop Down List Item").selectedIndex].text;
I was facing same problem it solved my problem with